Northwest Notes: Nurkic, Nuggets, Favors, Wolves
Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic suffered the fracture in his right leg Tuesday against the Nuggets, tweets Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. He played 32 minutes in Thursday’s game before the injury was discovered on Friday. Nurkic will be out of action for at least two weeks, and Portland is hoping he can be ready for the playoffs. “It just depends how I feel,” Nurkic said. “The doctor said, ‘He’s tough,’ and if it doesn’t hurt I’m going to be back.” (Twitter link). Blazers coach Terry Stotts plans to use a “committee” approach at center while Nurkic is out, with Meyers Leonard getting the start tonight (Twitter link).
There’s more from the Northwest Division:
- After losing three straight and falling two games behind Portland in the race for the final playoff spot, Nuggets coach Michael Malone wants his team to close out the season “the right way,” relays Christopher Dempsey on NBA.com. “If we do finish the right way, maybe other things happen and we give ourselves a chance,” Malone said. “I want to find guys that when everything looks bleak, who is going to go out there and play anyway. … Going forward, I will find a group of five guys, vets or young guys, whoever it may be, to go out there and play and play as hard as possible.” Denver has to overcome injury problems as it tries to save its season. Will Barton, Darrell Arthur and Jameer Nelson are all questionable for Sunday’s game at Miami and possibly beyond.
- The Jazz are hoping injured forward Derrick Favors can return before the end of the regular season, according to Jody Genessy of The Deseret News. A bone bruise in his left knee has kept Favors sidelined since March 6th, but coach Quin Snyder said Friday that he is “hopeful” about Favors coming back.
- Despite having some of the most exciting young players in the league, attendance remains a problem for the Timberwolves, notes Kent Youngblood of The Star Tribune. Even though the crowds have been trending upward, Minnesota is last in the NBA with an average of 14,584 fans per night. The Wolves are getting about 4% larger crowds than they did last season, but it will take success on the court for that number to increase significantly.
Rubio Making Case To Stick With Wolves; Casspi Still Adapting
- The Timberwolves signed Omri Casspi in the wake of Nemanja Bjelica‘s season-ending injury, hoping that Casspi could do some of the things that Bjelica did on the court. However, as Jerry Zgoda of The Star Tribune details, Casspi is still adapting to his new team. The Wolves have just nine games left, so the veteran forward may return to the free agent market before getting fully comfortable in Minnesota.
Ricky Rubio has been the subject of frequent trade speculation in the past couple years, but if he continues to play like he has lately, Rubio should have a future with the Timberwolves, writes Sid Hartman of The Star Tribune. As Hartman details, Rubio has been averaging a double-double (15.8 PPG, 10.6 APG) and shooting well (39.5% on threes) since the trade deadline, and is on a reasonable contract (two years and $29MM+ after this season). Minnesota drafted Kris Dunn last June to be the point guard of the future, but it appears Rubio isn’t ready to give up his hold on that title quite yet.
Bjelica Undergoes Foot Surgery
Timberwolves big man Nemanja Bjelica underwent surgery Tuesday to repair a fractured navicular bone in his left foot, the team announced in a press release. Bjelica’s season-ending injury occurred during Minnesota’s 117-104 loss to Boston on March 15th. He was averaging 6.2 PPG and 3.8 RPG in 18.3 MPG while appearing in 65 games. The club did not announce how long it would take for Bjelica, who will make a guaranteed $3,949,999 next season, to recover from the injury.
Wolves Sign Omri Casspi
March 20: The Wolves officially announced in a press release on Twitter that they’ve signed Casspi, though the exact terms have not yet been made available.
March 19: The Timberwolves are closing in on a deal with Omri Casspi, according to Marc Stein of ESPN (Twitter link). Casspi had been cleared to resume basketball activities last week, after suffering a right thumb injury.
Stein shed further light on the deal, reporting Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau met face-to-face with Casspi over dinner this weekend in New Orleans (article link). According to Stein, the Clippers, Celtics, and Grizzlies also showed interest in Casspi.
The Wolves have a need for Casspi, having lost Nemanja Bjelica for the season with a left foot injury. Like Bjelica, Casspi is known as a long-distance shooting specialist, shooting 36.9% on 3-pointers over the course of his career. While Casspi is playoff-eligible- having been released prior to the March 1 deadline- the Wolves face long odds to make the postseason. Thibodeau’s squad is 28-40, receiving 3% odds of making the playoffs according to Five Thirty Eight.
Casspi’s deal is expected to be finalized Monday, Stein reports.
Poll: No. 8 Seed In Western Conference
For most of the 2016/17 season, seven Western Conference teams have comfortably held postseason positions. The Warriors and Spurs have led the pack, followed by the Rockets, with the Jazz, Clippers, Thunder, and Grizzlies rounding out the top seven. The order those teams finish in has yet to be determined, but none of them are in danger of losing their playoff spots.
That leaves just one open spot for Western Conference teams vying for playoff contention, and the battle for the No. 8 seed has been an interesting one. With one or two exceptions, virtually every team in the bottom of the Western standings has been viewed as a viable candidate for that final postseason spot at some point since October — even the last-place Lakers created a little buzz when they opened the season with a 10-10 record before falling off significantly.
At this point, two teams look like top contenders for that No. 8 seed, and those two clubs actually completed a trade with one another just last month. The Nuggets and Trail Blazers swapped Mason Plumlee for Jusuf Nurkic in February, and those players have thrived with their new teams, helping to position them for a run at the West’s No. 8 seed. Both teams have been among the NBA’s best so far in March — Denver currently holds a one game lead over Portland with 13 to play, but the Blazers have won three games in a row and have a favorable schedule down the stretch.
Ultimately, it might not matter much which team claims the No. 8 spot — neither the Nuggets nor the Blazers is a serious threat to upset the top-ranked Warriors (or Spurs). Still, either club could at least make things a little interesting in round one as a frisky underdog, given how well they’ve been playing as of late.
What do you think? Will it be the Nuggets or the Blazers in that No. 8 spot at the end of the regular season? Or will another Western team – such as the Mavericks, Pelicans, or Timberwolves – sneak into that final spot with a hot streak in the season’s final weeks?
Which team will claim the No. 8 seed in the West?
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Portland Trail Blazers 45% (452)
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Denver Nuggets 35% (354)
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Another team 19% (195)
Total votes: 1,001
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Timberwolves Likely To Move On From Stephenson
The Timberwolves are likely to move on from Lance Stephenson as his second 10-day contract expires, says Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. The veteran guard has averaged 6.6 points per game this season across stops with the Wolves and Pelicans.
Originally signed to a 10-day deal with Minnesota on February 8 and then a second one following his recovery from an ankle injury on March 8, Stephenson never did quite establish himself in head coach Tom Thibodeau’s rotation.
Beyond the 16 minutes he played on the day he inked the second 10-day deal, Stephenson has played just two minutes for the Timberwolves since.
Queried about free agent Jimmer Fredette on Twitter, Wolfson added that the club has some interest in the guard (who recently saw a prolific season in China draw to an end) but may also have other options in mind as well.
Wolves Consider Adding Healthy Body To Roster
The Timberwolves have a full 15-man roster, but a handful of those spots are being occupied by players currently unable to contribute. Nikola Pekovic won’t play this season, Zach LaVine is out for the year, and this week Nemanja Bjelica and Lance Stephenson have gone down with injuries as well. The latest injuries to rotation players have left the Wolves considering adding a new healthy body to their roster, according to Jerry Zgoda of The Star Tribune.
As Zgoda notes, it’s possible that Tom Thibodeau will look at in-house options as he considers how to replace Bjelica, who will miss the rest of the season with a foot injury. Gorgui Dieng, Shabazz Muhammad, or Cole Aldrich could be asked to take on larger roles, and perhaps a player like Adreian Payne or Jordan Hill will rejoin the rotation. For his part, Thibodeau says he thinks his roster has “more than enough to win with.” Still, Minnesota’s head coach and president of basketball operations acknowledged that an outside addition is possible.
“We’re just looking at where we are and who’s available,” Thibodeau said. “With Pek being out, too, you’re down roster spots. You want to be sure you have enough bodies just so you’re able to practice and handle foul trouble and things like that.”
Stephenson’s second 10-day contract with the Wolves will expire tonight, and as long as he remains on the shelf with an ankle injury, he won’t be a candidate for a full-season deal. However, Thibodeau indicated that it’s “premature” to say whether Minnesota is ready to part ways with Stephenson, since the extent of his injury hasn’t yet been determined.
Although the expiration of Stephenson’s 10-day contract will open up one spot on the Wolves’ roster, the team likely wouldn’t be eligible for a hardship exception that would allow for a 16th man. To be awarded that exemption, a team needs to have at least four players who have missed at least three straight games and will continue to be sidelined. In Pekovic, LaVine, and Blejica, the Wolves have three of those players. Payne likely doesn’t qualify as a fourth, since he was cleared to practice more than a week ago and seems to be available to play if needed — he’s just not in the club’s rotation at the moment.
Nemanja Bjelica Out For Rest Of Season
The Timberwolves saw a key reserve go down on Wednesday night, as Nemanja Bjelica left the team’s game against Boston with a left foot injury. After Bjelica underwent an MRI today to determine the extent of the injury, the Wolves announced in a press release that the forward will miss the rest of the season.
The exact nature of Bjelica’s injury wasn’t specified by the Wolves in their announcement today. However, the team did say that the 28-year-old will seek medical opinions from “appropriate specialists” in order to determine his options for treatment.
A second-round pick in 2010, Bjelica finally arrived stateside for the 2015/16 season, and has appeared in 125 games for the Wolves since making his NBA debut, coming off the bench in all but one of those games. The 6’10” Serbian has been a steady presence for Minnesota’s second unit, averaging 5.7 PPG and 3.6 RPG in 18.1 minutes per contest over the course of his career. Bjelica had been playing even better as of late, with four double-doubles since the All-Star break.
Bjelica remains under contract with the Wolves for at least one more season. He’ll make just under $4MM in 2017/18, then will face a decision on a player option in the summer of ’18.
Time Running Out For Playoff Hopeful Wolves
- The Timberwolves are running out of times to sneak into the Western Conference playoff picture, Jerry Zgoda of the StarTribune writes. With just 17 games left in the season, the Wolves will have to leapfrog three teams and make up 3.5 games in the standings.
Community Shootaround: Minnesota Timberwolves
The Wolves beat the Warriors on Friday night in a game that came down to a missed Stephen Curry jumper in the remaining seconds of regulation. Minnesota is 7-3 over its last 10 contests (only the Spurs can claim a better record) and the team’s defense deserves credit for the stretch. The team held Curry to just one made 3-pointer on his eight attempts and as a team, Golden State shot just 29.3% from behind the arc.
Entering their game with the Warriors, the Wolves had the highest defensive rating in the league post All-Star break, as I recently mentioned. It takes time to learn defensive schemes in the NBA and it appears that the team’s young talent is starting to grasp Tom Thibodeau’s playbook.
The franchise enters the day just 2.5 games behind the Nuggets for the eighth seed in the Western Conference, though the Wolves would also have to jump the Blazers and Mavs to punch a ticket to the NBA’s second season.
That leads us to tonight’s shootaround topic: Can the Wolves make a run over the last quarter of the season and make the playoffs or are they a piece or two away from being a playoff team? Let us know if you think Minnesota can climb in the standings or what the team should do this offseason to complement Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. We look forward to what you have to say!